Ontario's finance minister resigns after taking Caribbean holiday amid pandemic

Ontario’s Finance Minister Rod Phillips resigned Thursday after provoking outrage for taking a holiday in the Caribbean earlier this month in defiance of his own government’s pandemic safety guidelines.

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US official confirms effort to declassify uncorroborated intel that China offered bounties on US troops

A senior Trump administration official has confirmed to Fox News that the government is working to declassify uncorroborated intelligence recently briefed to the president that suggests China may have offered to pay a bounty on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

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UK prime minister's father seeks French citizenship: 'I will always be European'

As Britain prepares to split from the European Union, the father of Prime Minister Boris Johnson appears to be seeking closer ties with the bloc by applying for French citizenship.

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China utilizes new, 'sophisticated' methods to revive patriotic education: report

The government started targeting younger age groups after older students led the charge on the Hong Kong protests in 2019.

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Security firms say suspicious object on oil tanker off Iraq

Maritime security firms say a suspicious object has been found on the hull of an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf off the coast of Iraq.

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Indonesia nurse suspended after having sex with COVID-19 patient

A male nurse in Indonesia has been suspended after admitting that he stripped off his personal protective equipment to have sex in a toilet with a man infected with COVID-19, according to reports.

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Pope Francis to skip New Year's Eve ceremonies due to back pain

Pope Francis is skipping New Year’s ceremonies due to what the Vatican says is a painful back condition, a spokesman said Thursday.

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Live Updates: New Year's Eve celebrations kick off around the world amid coronavirus pandemic

New Year's Eve celebrations around the world have begun with people bidding goodbye to a tumultuous year that many would prefer to forget.

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Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai's bail revoked

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai has had his bail revoked after prosecutors succeeded in asking the city’s highest court to send him back to detention.

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Convicted spy who sold US military secrets arrives in Israel, granted citizenship

A former Navy intelligence analyst who spent 30 years behind bars for selling U.S. military secrets to Israel, arrived in Israel Wednesday where he and his wife were formally granted citizenship by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

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China clamping down on research into origins of COVID-19 pandemic

More than a year after the first known COVID-19 cases broke out in China, Beijing is clamping down on research into the pandemic’s origins, while actively promoting fringe theories that it could have originated outside the country.

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Japan’s solution to space junk problem is wooden satellites that would burn up upon reentry

Japanese researchers are working on satellite technology that would use wood components to eliminate excess space junk as the objects burn up harmlessly upon reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

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Iran to pay $150G to families of Ukraine plane crash victims

Iran on Wednesday said it will pay $150,000 to the families of the 176 victims of a Ukrainian passenger plane that was shot down by Iranian forces near Tehran in January.

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Norway landslide injures 10, about two dozen missing

The Norwegian small town of Ask awoke to a landslide early Wednesday morning that injured 10 people and left 21 unaccounted for. 

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Earthquake aftershocks rattle Croatia, keep residents out of homes

Aftershocks jolted central Croatia on Wednesday, a day after a 6.3-magnitude earthquake killed at least seven people, injured dozens and left several towns and villages in ruins.

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Explosion rocks Yemen airport in 'cowardly terrorist attack' as new Cabinet members land

The members of the Yemeni government’s newly formed Cabinet, including Prime Minister Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, were greeted with a loud explosion soon after its plane landed Wednesday in the city of Aden, in what an official is calling a "cowardly terrorist attack carried out by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia." 

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American radio station in Germany goes off the air after 75 years, blames coronavirus pandemic

The American presence on Berlin’s airways since 1945 that carried English-language news and music ended this month when the last US radio station in the German capital stopped broadcasting, Politico reported Tuesday.

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Bill legalizing abortion passed in Argentina, largest Latin American to legalize procedure

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Despite coronavirus guidance, Ontario’s finance minister Rod Phillips went abroad on ‘personal trip’

In Canada, Ontario Premier Doug Ford on Tuesday ordered his finance minister, Rod Phillips, to “immediately” return to the country after discovering that he had left Canada earlier this month for a holiday.

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US 'ready' to try man convicted in Daniel Pearl's murder, acting AG Rosen says

A provisional court in Pakistan ordered Omar Sheikh’s release from prison last week.

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Spain to keep registry of people who refuse COVID-19 vaccine, will share with EU: health minister

Spain will begin keeping a record of those who refuse a coronavirus vaccine and will share that information with other nations in the European Union, the country's health minister said Monday.

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Croatia rocked by magnitude 6.3 earthquake

A strong earthquake hit central Croatia on Tuesday, causing major damage to homes and other buildings in a town southeast of the capital. A girl was killed in the quake and a man and a boy were pulled out alive from a car buried in rubble and sent to a hospital.

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US sells ambassador's home in Israel for $67M, cementing embassy move to Jerusalem

The United States sold the ambassador’s residence in Israel for more than $67 million in July, according to an official Israeli record of the sale that shines new light on a transaction that has been shrouded in secrecy.

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COVID-19 vaccine rollout to US troops overseas gets underway

The U.S. military began inoculating American troops based overseas this week, focusing on military and civilian health care workers, first responders and command teams.

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Nearly 1,000 Pakistani girls forced to convert to Islam every year

At the age of 14, Neha was forcibly converted from Christianity to Islam and married to a 45-year-old man with children twice her age.

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Russia admits coronavirus death toll three times higher than reported

Russia has admitted its coronavirus death toll is more than three times higher than previously reported.

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Chilling video captures Russian dancer killed by masked assassin

Natalia Pronina — who won international dance competitions, including in the UK — was shot twice in the chest by the masked assassin outside her apartment building near the Akademicheskaya train station, East2West News reported.

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South Korea confirms first COVID-19 variant cases

The infected were in Korea before the government instituted its travel ban from the U.K.

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How the coronavirus pandemic is changing New Year's Eve celebrations across the world

The lack of public gatherings has forced some cities to be more creative as to how they celebrate, with some cities seeing private groups fund fireworks displays of their own.

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United Kingdom warns of 'bumpy moments' despite striking post-Brexit trade deal

First came the Brexit trade deal. Now comes the red tape and the institutional nitty-gritty. 

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Prominent Saudi Arabian women's rights activist sentenced to nearly 6 years in prison

One of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent women’s rights activists was sentenced Monday to nearly six years in prison, according to state-linked media, under a vague and broadly worded counterterrorism law. The ruling nearly brings to a close a case that has drawn international criticism and the ire of U.S. lawmakers.

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200 British travelers flee Swiss ski resort quarantine amid fears of new coronavirus variant

Hundreds of British tourists forced into quarantine at an upmarket ski resort due to fears about the new, more contagious variant of COVID-19 have fled under the cover of darkness, according to a report.

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Citizen journalist in China who reported on COVID-19 sentenced to 4 years

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'Believe in science': EU kicks off COVID-19 vaccine campaign

The new vaccines come at a time when Europe continues to face surging numbers as hospitals struggle with the strain.

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British government plans to approve Oxford vaccine, distribute starting Jan. 4

The plan to distribute the vaccine includes both the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines.

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German pilot traces massive syringe in recent flight to honor coronavirus vaccination campaign

A pilot in Germany had some fun during a recent flight to honor the start of coronavirus vaccination campaign in Europe on Sunday.

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Wars, instability pose coronavirus vaccine challenges in poor nations

Developing countries face supply chain issues as well as armed conflicts that make it difficult to distribute the vaccines.

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Canada, Japan among nations reporting infections with fast-spreading UK coronavirus strain

The fast-spreading coronavirus strain first identified in the United Kingdom has now reached Canada and Japan, after cases cropped up in some European counties.

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Pope on coronavirus vaccine: Needy, vulnerable must come first

Pope Francis made a Christmas Day plea for authorities to make COVID-19 vaccines available to all, insisting that the first in line should be the most vulnerable and needy, regardless of who holds the patents for the shots.

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US Embassy in Baghdad denies rumor of evacuation, with tensions high after largest attack in decade

The U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on Friday denied rumors of an evacuation at the building after the embassy was attacked earlier this week.

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Christmas Eve concert held in Paris' fire-wrecked Notre Dame

Wearing hard hats and protective suits, members of the choir of Notre Dame Cathedral sang inside the medieval Paris landmark for the first time since last year’s devastating fire for a special Christmas Eve concert.

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Pope Francis celebrates low-key Christmas Eve Mass amid coronavirus restrictions

Pope Francis celebrated Christmas Eve Mass on Thursday night amid coronavirus restrictions that reduced a normal crowd of as many as 10,000 congregants to a group of fewer than 100 people, according to reports.

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Ariana Grande donates Amazon gift cards to every child in Manchester children's hospital

Popstar Ariana Grande played a not-so-secret Santa this Christmas, giving every child at a Manchester, UK, children’s hospital an Amazon gift card worth £100, or about $135.

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Russian Cyberattack: It will take a long time to understand, perhaps years, experts say

A long and tedious job is waiting for U.S. government researchers to understand the depth and veracity of the suspected Russian cyber-attack on several government institutions.

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COVID outbreak in South Korea possibly linked to apartment ventilation system

The coronavirus may have spread through the ventilation system at an apartment complex in South Korea where several residents from different households became infected, according to a study.

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How Iran's central bank currency system is manipulated to fund regional proxy wars

While subjected to years of sanctions and a "maximum pressure" campaign inflicted by the Trump administration, reports indicate that the Iranian regime and its military wing – the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) – may have found a crack in their financing system giving them access to millions in funds.

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'Lost Girl' brought to the US amid Sudan war connects with surviving family member after 30 years

In a year pockmarked by an ongoing pandemic, the type of tragedy that brings faded war memories back to life, Rebecca Deng has a reason to truly celebrate Christmas in her snow-dusted home of Holland, Mich., this year.

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Putin signs bill providing lifetime immunity to Russian presidents after term

The bill is part of a number of constitutional amendments that were planned following the extension of a president's term limits.

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Boris Johnson says UK has 'taken back control' after securing post-Brexit trade deal with EU

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared victory in the four-year battle for Brexit on Thursday, saying that the U.K. had “taken back control” after negotiators secured a post-Brexit free trade deal with the E.U. -- just days before it was due to finalize its departure from the bloc.

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China starts trials for second amphibious assault ship, with third expected in 2021

The People's Liberation Army aims to complete eight amphibious vehicles that will greatly expand the naval capabilities of the Chinese military.

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